Meg Whitman and the Latino vote

“Senior advisor Rob Stutzman isn’t exactly spilling his guts about the former EBay chief’s spectacular thumping. The billionaire lost to low-budget Jerry Brown by 54% to 41%, despite spending a record $160 million-plus, roughly $142 million of it her own money.

“But the veteran Republican strategist is blaming the mini-landslide size of Whitman’s loss on some ugly dust-ups over illegal immigration that alienated Latinos from the GOP.”

Bunk.

Jim Wilson, NYT

Adios, pobrecita

Let’s start with the biggest factor in Whitman’s Titanic disaster of a campaign — the overpaid political class coronated her because of her money, even though they had no reason to believe that she would be a good candidate or a great governor.

I agree that the GOP has to woo Latino voters, and has to develop a message that resonates with the Latino community. But the party cannot win Latino votes by pandering. It must be authentic. In fact, it can be argued that Whitman’s Latino outreach only fed the fury against Whitman — especially after the Nicky Diaz story.

If Whitman had political experience, if she had a history of working with the Latino community, she would not have made such an easy target.

I talked to Stutzman who told me it would be a misreading of his conversation with Skelton to conclude that he was blaming Whitman’s loss on the GOP’s Latino vote deficit. Fair enough. And I agree that the party can do a better job shunning activists who speak as if all immigrants should be presumed illegal — which oddly was the Democratic argument during the Diaz controversy.

That said, let’s start with the mistake that spawned all other mistakes. The GOP’s permanent political class went for the money.